Review of She's Funny That Way (2015) by Flipje — 20 Feb 2023
This movie is bonkers, zany, unbelievable and yet a pleasure. It feels like a callback to classic, kook-filled Hollywood and while yes, there is a Woody Allen-vibe, it was just a pleasure to watch. At times, the film had this element of a screwball, Broadway play and even with a barrage of certain, ridiculous clichés ('the prostitute with a heart of gold' being one of them along with the unfaithful theatre director), the performances and the script seemed to rise above it all.
Some critics have called it forgettable and sure, if you focus on the typical tropes, there is a kind of 'been there, done that' aura to the overall piece. What I loved was the sincerity to this film.
Despite everything being over-the-top and too-too-coincidental, I laughed and smiled the whole way through. The story of a rise-to-fame-reflective actress telling her fairy tale to a jaded journalist frames the main narrative.
On the one hand, you listen to her with a gullible eagerness, eating up her every word, swept into her world as the movie veers between her maudlin retelling and the events themselves. On the other hand you feel like you are becoming wiser to the charms.
Imogen Poots brings that doe-eyed whimsy to her character and mixed in with her tender-raw New Yawk accent, you are hook-line-and-sinker along for the journey even though she is a bit unreliable in her narrative and superficially sentimental depending on how it favours her.
She flits from guy to guy in the story and the guys themselves are no better than her whether it be Owen Wilson's overly-generous 'John' or the playwright's (Will Forte) meek but do-good eagerness, no one is innocent here.
The other characters and nuances of the script are too webbed to even explain so I just say, hey, plonk down and give them one a go. I absolutely loved the supporting characters from Anniston's jaded therapist to Ifans' aged English actor to Hahn's revengeful wife.
The story and film may not be to be everybody's like but for those that like a whirlwind comedy, this is it. I will definitely return to this one.
This review of She's Funny That Way (2015) was written by Flipje on 20 Feb 2023.
She's Funny That Way has generally received mixed reviews.
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